Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy offers age-wide summer programs

Half of an adult human body is made up of water. Tie a string from this aqueous body to any of the oceans on earth, whose mass is nearly three-fourths water, and one might imagine it’d oscillate with empathy; “keep it clean, keep it clean,” it might sing.

Because if humans keep the water in their own bodies clean, why wouldn’t they keep the water on the planet they inhabit just as unpolluted?

“If you ask a group of people who wants to drink clean water, all hands go up,” says Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy’s director of environmental education Trudy Phillips. Yet, she says, community members aren’t aware of the necessary steps that need to be taken to ensure that water remains drinkable.

With a bill of programs throughout the remainder of June, July and August intended for elementary-aged children, adults and families, the PWC aims to educate the public about the water around them, and to inject empathy —buttressed by know-how — into a community sitting atop a watershed.

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A watershed, Phillips explains, is a “gigantic drainage basin” where storm water converges before exiting into a body of water. In our area the watershed drains into the Schuylkill River.

“If you ask people in our community where the water in the Perkiomen Creek goes, they’ll tell you it goes into the Susquehanna River and then into the Chesapeake Bay,” says Phillips. “I had one kid tell me it went into the Boston Harbor. We want people to understand where the water comes from and how we can work to make it clean.”

Luckily, PWC’s summer programs include “Whatza’ Watershed,” a four-day educational event for fourth-to sixth-graders. Participants will chart the direction of the water in our area — what does it come from and where is it going? — in addition to learning why local water matters. Plus, adds Phillips, it’ll get the kids out of the house and moving.

“All of the kids’ programs are under the heading of the Summer Science Academy,” she says. “Our motto is everybody active all the time. They really get a good workout while doing hands-on experiments.”

For the younger ones who also want a shot at exploration, there’s a day for kindergartners through third-graders to survey the East Branch Creek. The just-under 25-mile-long stream is just one of the branches that makes up the Perkiomen Creek, and is teeming with plants and animals that call the water source home.

And then there’s the explorer who aspires to know-it-all status. Taking place in four-day segments, “Abiotics — Sun, Soil, Air & Water!” is a program for those 5-, 6-, 7-, 8- or 9-year-olds who need to understand each cog that binds the parts of our local eco-system.

The educational exposure to basic biological and ecological thinking, Phillips says, is paramount to a young student’s engagement with learning inside and outside the classroom.

“They are hearing about it and seeing it before they get it in school. It piques their interest. It makes what they are learning in school come alive.”

Phillips speaks a lot about ‘hearing it and seeing it’ — in other words becoming aware, in terms of PWC’s mission. The project of making community members conscious of the distinct organisms that depend on the water in our Montgomery, Bucks and Berks counties is exhausting, but fraught with not only an appreciation for the biology of natural life, but the beauty of it as well.

“The ‘Wildflower Walk!’ is a wonderful thing,” says Phillips. On Saturday, July 20 families embark on a walk from the Black Rock Preserve in Phoenixville, intent on reading the plant life they encounter. The stories they tell, Phillips says, are unmatched.

“There are some plants that can tell you about soil, or what kind of parent rock is beneath them. Always on this walk we learn from each other; somebody has information on birds, or somebody shares information about fungus. Interjected along the way we might learn information about other things in the area.”

As with all of their programs for kids and those geared towards families and adults, including the “Perkiomen Creek Sojourn,” “Endangered! Sea Turtles” and “Bass Fishing – Smart Angler Program,” PWC focuses on information that can be seen, understood and then applied to one’s own backyard.

“We try to make our programs such that they build on each other,” Phillips explains. “It’s information that participants need to manipulate, think about and experiment with. We very much try to make sure it can be incorporated into their daily lives.”

Phillips and PWC’s goals bring home the idea of the water inside a human, how that puddle seems to be treasured above those from which humans drink and bathe themselves every day.

“Every living organism has conditions that are optimal for its growth,” says Phillips. She’s talking about the plants and animals that dot the Perkiomen Creek, who feed off it and whose livelihood demand it be protected. Otherwise, they’ll have to move to other water sources, a change that could prove deadly.

“If you put us in the Northwest Territories, above Canada, with just what we have, and you say, ‘OK, survive,’ we’re going to be hard-pressed to do that.”